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No. 445,746. Patented Feb. 3, 1891.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEICE.

JOI-IN B. CLEAVELAND, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

FENCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 445,746, dated February 3, 1891. i

Application filed September 22, 1890. Serial No. 365,734. (No model.)

T0 all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN B. CLEAVELAND, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fences, of which the following is a specification.

illyinvention relates to an improvement in that class of fences in which the posts are connected by tubular rails held in place by clips which embrace and are keyed on the posts and have dowels or tenons formed thereon that enter the open ends of the rails, the whole being heretofore bound together by several strands of wire stretched along the outsides of the posts from one to another and arranged at intervals from the top to the bottom thereof to form the fence. An example of this class offences is found in United States Patent No. 392,948, issued to me November 13, 1888.

The object of my present improvement is to protect. and conceal the strand which holds the posts and rails together and to use said strand for the additional purpose of holding the clips in position relatively to the posts, to the end that this general construction may be adapted not only to wire fences but to picket-fences also.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention.

Figure l represents a side elevation and partial vertical section. Fig. 2 represents, on a larger scale, a central transverse section of one of the clips, the post on which it is mounted,and the binding rod or cable. Fig. 3 represents a side elevation of the same.

A, l5, and C are the posts of a line of fence. A and C represent the end or corner posts, and B an intermediate post.. Said posts are made, preferably, of iron tubing.

D D are tubes forming rails which connect the posts. Said tubes or rails are connected with the post by clips consisting of an eye E, adapted to embrace the post, and a tenon -or dowel F, adapted to slip easilyinto the end of the tubes. The clips on the intermediate posts have two dowels F, extending from the clip in opposite directions.

The construction and relation of the posts, 5o clips, and rails thus fartdo not differ from that shown in my above-mentioned patent.

For the purpose of securing the clips in position on the post and also binding the several posts and rails together, so as to close up the joints between the ends of the rails and the clips, and thus prevent the dowels from working out of the rails, each clip is perforated axially through the dowel or dowels, said perforations extending also through the 6o opposite side of the clip, as at h,`Fig. 2. Corresponding perforations are also made th rough the sides of the several posts. A binding-strand I, consisting, preferably, of a wire cable, although a light rod may be used, is then passed through the several clips, posts, and rails, as shown, one end of said bindingstrand being made fast at one end post and the other end attached to or provided with a tension device, as a threaded rod J and nut 7o K, mounted on the other end post, the Whole arrangement being such that when the binding-strand is drawn taut by the tension device the joints of the entire fence are closed up, the clips are prevented by the strand from 7 5 moving vertically or turning laterally on the posts, and the binding-strand is protected and concealed from view.

lVhen it is desired to use pickets or palings or ornamental scroll-work to form the body 8o of the fence, a second line of rails may be put in, as shown.

I claim as myginventionl.l I n a fence, the combination of end posts and one or more intermediate posts, clips, each consisting of an eye adapted to embrace the post and a projecting dowel having an axial perforation mounted on said post, a series of tubular rails mounted at their ends on said dowels,a tension device mounted on one 9o of said end posts, and a binding-strand made fast to an end post, passing thence longitudinally through said clips and tubular rails and transversely through the posts and secured to the tension device at the other end, all arranged to co-operate substantially as set forth.-

2. In a fence, the combination of a pair of transvelsely-perfol'ztted posts,veaeh having a tension device mounted on the other` post, lutemlly-projeeting axially-perforated dowel whereby said rails, doWelS, and posts are secured thereto, a tubular mil mounted at bound together, as set forth.

each end on said dowels, and a binding-strand l JOHN B. CLEAVELAND. passing longitudinally through said tubular Witnesses: rails and dowels and secured at one end to H. P. HOOD,

one of said posts and at the other end te a V. M. HOOD. 

